On our honeymoon in Hawaii, Stacia and I booked a boat trip off the Kona Coast on the Big Island to do some snorkeling. Our first snorkeling trip along the Na Pali Coast (Kauai) we did not do so well because, unbeknownst to us, our snorkel gear was on wrong!
Thankfully, our guide Gabe was able to fix our gear and we had an amazing time.
The tour “guaranteed” the chance to swim with dolphins and our hopes were sky high. We were not disappointed at all as the boat stopped five different times to allow us to get in the water with pods of Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins.
The dolphins would swim really close, underneath and beside us, and we could hear them communicating while we were underwater. Stacia even found an adult and young which approached excitingly close to her!
As an unexpected bonus, we also found Manta Rays. The rays are harmless and almost as cool as the dolphins. One went underneath us and opened his mouth. The rays were incredible to watch swim so effortlessly.
We highly recommend booking this sort of boat trip. Even us novice snorkelers got the hang of it and saw an amazing amount of sea life.
Photos taken with our Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS3 [amazon affiliate link] which is waterproof and awesome!